400 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1892. 



attained to by taxidermists anywhere in the world. There are two great 

 reasons for this : First, taxidermy itself has only recently been raised 

 from the plane of mere cheap jobbery to the place it long ago should 

 have occupied — that is, to a school of living art; and, second, the selec- 

 tion from that school for employment in the Museum of at least a rep- 

 resentation. 



Everything 1 have thus far said in the foregoing pages in the matter 

 of models, of grouping, and, indeed, of reproducing nature in the Museum 

 with respect to fishes and reptiles, applies with equal force to birds. 

 With regard to the photography of birds in their native haunts and 

 elsewhere, for the purpose of securing models as guides to natural atti- 

 tudes of this class of vertebrates for the taxidermie artist, it would seem 

 to be far more important here than with either reptiles or fish. This is 

 so from the fact that in the case with the last two the specimens are 

 now most frequently cast, while, as we well know, with birds it is differ- 

 ent; they being skinned, the artist must have a model to go by for the 

 restoration of form. 



Where models are not followed, especially in those cases where the 

 taxidermist may never have seen the bird either alive or even a good 

 figure of it, the most pitiable results follow. This is well seen in PI. 

 xxxvi, showing two king penguins — birds of the same species. The 

 taller of the two was mounted by one of the old schoolmen taxider- 

 mists years ago, and it is so bad that I consider it quite beyond the 

 pale of criticism. The second and more upright bird, recently done at 

 the Museum, although in some particulars not everything it should be, 

 is such an advance upon the first, that comparison becomes quite unnec- 

 essary. Bad mounting of the kind just referred to is still more disas- 

 trous when it has been done in the case of a bird of great rarity, and 

 consequently of almost priceless value. This was unfortunately the 

 case in regard to the specimen of the Great Auk (Plautus impennis) 

 owned by the National Museum. A figure of this as first mounted by 

 some ancient bungler is shown on PI. xxxvn, Fig. 1. No living auk in 

 good health ever stood in that position; but thanks to what art can 

 sometimes accomplish in these days, this outraged bird was not des- 

 tined for all eternity to stand as a drum-major at dress parade. 



It was determined to have it remounted; an operation, owing to the 

 age of the specimen and a lack of knowledge as to what condition the 

 .skin might be in, that required a full measure of judgment relative to 

 what taxidermy could hope for in such premises. The work of remod- 

 eling was accomplished by Mr. Wood, of the National Museum, and the 

 result is shown in Plate xxxvn, Fig. 2, and this now probably extinct 

 fowl, one of the treasures of the department, presents a far more respect- 

 able appearance, and is certainly posed in a far more natural attitude, 

 though judging from Audubon's plate of it, I believe it still to be not a 

 posture this auk was wont to assume. Still, it was most assuredly the 



